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Last day Chanukah
Bat Mitzvah of Melissa Morton
Aufruf of Jonathan Goss and Jodie Ross
Although this Shabbat is not the last one of 2009 and the decade that has been racily dubbed, the ‘noughties;’ I am making a somewhat educated guess that whilst churches may be experiencing bumper attendances, Shuls will be somewhat emptier on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. I therefore thought that this might be the time to review the decade.
To be honest, it was difficult to be immensely positive taking a global view of a decade that has been dominated by terrorism, little progress on at any climate change conference, and an economic system that’s inequalities have led to misery for the majority.
Fortunately, we are presented on this Shabbat with two wonderful simchas to sign-off the decade.
The aufruf of Jonathan and Jodie who are soon getting married and the Bat Mitzvah of Melissa, each starting new chapters in their lives with so much to look forward to. Indeed, if we take a rather more long-term view than that which we usually adopt, it is easier to be positive.
I take this viewpoint having begun to delve for the first time into theories of evolution. I am still in awe of the fact that the prayers we have read this Shabbat are in structure and largely in content, the same our ancestors read 2000 years ago. However, I am now more aware that those 2000 years represent 0.04% of time elapsed since modern humans left their ancestral homeland in northeast Africa. In those terms, we are living in a time when individual human beings have evolved or developed to become less aggressive, seeing the benefits of cooperation as generally outweighing those of conflict. That general prosperity, no matter how unevenly distributed is greater than it has ever been. Taking this approach, one might even conceive that whilst our planet, of its own volition and abetted by human mismanagement of natural resources and technology, is about to enter a time of instability that one day might be called a ‘something Age;’ we are better placed to cope with it than ever before. The only question is how widespread the generosity of those who have the abilities to cope, will be shared with those who do not.
In the next few weeks, you will doubtless be able to read extensive column inches reviewing the ‘noughties,’ most focussing on the issues of terrorism, climate change, inequalities and of course culture, more or less thinly disguising our addiction with the world of the celebrity.
I am not too sure whether there will be much on the state of religion. So let me consider this now for a moment.
Religion is one of the elements that the New York Times science reporter, Nicholas Wade, identifies as being a part of the human genome. He defines the expression of religion as, “a society’s collective wisdom, past and present, as to how its members should best behave in order to enhance the society’s survival.”
At a time when many are questioning leaders, whether in politics, economics or other elements of society, religion ought to be filling a void. Sadly, religious leaders have sullied their Faiths: In the extreme situation of too many priests in the Roman Catholic Church of Ireland grossly abusing their power, the hate-filled messages of too many Imams in this country and in our own house, the undignified approach of the United Synagogue and its institutions to admissions to the Jewish Free School and the involvement of many ultra-orthodox Rabbis in fraud. In nearly all cases, religious leadership in the West is ultimately open to the charges of not being able to respond to the changing needs of society and to transform the relevancy of its message to a new reality.
Nicholas Wade suggests that: “The essence of religion is communal.” It is a form of “social cohesion…and that the propensity for religious belief may be innate…shaped by natural selection because they confer some advantage.” He identifies that advantage as being: “…language can be used to deceive…religion began as a mechanism for a community to exclude those who could not be trusted..Therefore, religion and its ritual was an essential source of authority in the egalitarian society of humanity over 50,000 years ago.”
Wade identifies the evolution of religion as moving from the performance of simple cohesion-motivated rituals that included initiation rites, to marking fixed times determined by astronomical events, to sacrificing to a deity. Then as societies became more complex, elites co-opted the ritual practices as another mechanism of social control and as a means of justifying their privileged positions. “Religion had become ideal tools for the purposes of warfare and economic exploitation.” Thus, Wade suggests that religion provided a tool that reached far into human nature, going so far as to posit a persuasive, yet controversial theory for a ‘God gene.’
I do believe that religion is at a crucial fork in the road for three reasons. Firstly, in the West and in particular in Europe, the growth of a secular alternative to living that need not be less moral than religion itself. Secondly, we live in far less aggressive times to our ancestors whereby the individual does not need to resort to aggression for benefit. Finally, in the long-term we are living in a more economically robust era than our ancient ancestors.
Additionally, Biblical Criticism has torn asunder the historical truth of sacred texts. One of the greatest challenges for religious leaders, will be to assimilate the knowledge from anthropologists and scientists that it was not theology that may have served as the evolutionary basis to religion, “but the practical rules of moral, military and lifecycle behaviour, and the distilled collective wisdom of leaders past and present as to the guiding principles most likely to ensure society’s survival.”
Wade ponders on the future of religion thus: “Religion, at its best, provides not only an external (i.e., superior to human) basis for moral human behavior, but also a cultural and spiritual link to past generations that complements the genetic link. In this broader sense, I believe religion will evolve in a way that reinterprets scripture and tradition to take into account new scientific discovery and expansion of the moral code, rather than breaking with the bases of traditional religions and substituting new “secular” forms. Theology and Science should make peace and develop a symbiotic relationship.”
Sounds a little like Liberal Judaism to me! Melissa, Jonathan and Jodie, I hope and pray that, just as today you have found a relevant and meaningful place to mark a moment in your lives, we will continue to evolve with you so that you will wish to return at other times in your lives, and indeed, to continue the evolution of our Faith, as a vital part of your being.
By, valuing truth above tradition, sincerity above conformity and human needs above legal technicalities, I know that Liberal Judaism and this Community are well placed, to flourish through the next decade and through many future generations.
Amen |
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